Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, September 8, 1998

1998-09-08 04:00:00 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- A San Francisco supervisor wants to crack down on the homeless in Hallidie, United Nations and Civic Center plazas, a proposal likely to renew the city's fight over what to do about people loitering in public places.

Supervisor Amos Brown is working on legislation that would make Hallidie and U.N. plazas, like the Civic Center, covered by the city's park code. That change would outlaw camping and drinking and would make it easier for police to tell people to move along, according to Brown and Department of Public Works officials.

Brown is also part of a public- private committee that wants to bring life back to rundown Civic Center Plaza after the City Hall renovation and construction of the state office complex is completed in the next several months.

"I think homeless people should be responsible. We should show compassion but must move beyond that to real responsibility and decency," said the supervisor, a Baptist minister who has made public order, clean streets and combatting vandalism his main interests in almost two years on the board.

"This is not a mean-spirited effort," said Brown, who devised his plan in consultation with groups like the Market Street Association. That group of businesses and property owners is concerned that the concentration of homeless along the area around Market Street from Powell Street to the Civic Center is scaring away tourists and locals.

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Brown says he wants homeless people in the three plazas to get full access to city services.

"Our philosophy is that if you bring more of a positive environment, you get more positive activity," said Carolyn Diamond, executive director of the Market Street Association.

She pointed to improved conditions this summer at Hallidie Plaza. In June, the Cable Car Coffee chain opened a small shop down in the plaza, near the busy tourist information center, which attracts 700,000 people a year.

"Things have gotten better because of the cafe," Diamond said.

Cable Car Coffee owner Samantha Lyons said her newest cafe has been a success. "It used to be pretty scary in the plaza," said Lyons, who has another shop just a few yards away, upstairs near the foot of Powell Street.

"The (homeless) presence has gotten less," she said. "More activity has quieted the place down."

At noon Friday, the cafe's tables were almost all taken.

A few blocks away, at U.N. Plaza, a noontime concert sponsored by the Market Street Association drew just a handful of spectators. The plaza, especially the lawn along Market Street, has become a popular spot for street people.

"We're not that interested in more of a police presence," Diamond said, "but in putting in more activities."

At U.N. Plaza, envisioned changes include new lighting and benches and more activities. The plaza already hosts a popular farmers' market on Wednesdays and Sundays.

"It's an effort to close more public space to poor people," said the coalition's Judy Appel. "It's really consistent with the city's efforts around the city."

Under Mayor Willie Brown, the homeless have been rousted from the eastern end of Golden Gate Park. That led them to move to Haight-Ashbury neighborhood or even to the Castro area, merchants and residents say.

Appel said the new proposal is just "Amos Brown's public relations effort" for his election campaign.

Supervisor Brown is also on a committee led by Public Works Director Mark Primeau that is trying to come up with interim solutions for Civic Center Plaza. Thousands of city and state workers will return to the area next year, and the city is formulating a long-term plan for a bond issue to rebuild the plaza completely.

Until then, Brown said, he wants to increase activity in the plaza. As a start, there will be noontime concerts and poetry readings, he said.

"We want to draw in people so it's a usable city space," Primeau said.

Conditions are a far cry from those in the days of "Camp Agnos" -- the homeless encampment that grew up in the plaza under Mayor Art Agnos -- but most of the area is generally occupied by street people.

However, there are two modern and often-busy playgrounds on the east end where no adults are admitted without children.

Mayor Brown, who emphasizes that he is moving back to City Hall on December 31, has also taken an interest in Civic Center Plaza. He has mentioned moving the Public Health Department's Tom Waddell Clinic from the agency's headquarters building at Polk and Grove streets to a site farther from the plaza.

The clinic sees as many as 7,000 patients a month, many of them indigent.

"The plaza is the symbol of our seat of government," said Supervisor Brown. "It shouldn't look like it does now."

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His legislation is still being drafted, but he hopes to introduce it and hold hearings before too long.

The homeless coalition is ready to fight. "They seem to be talking about limiting homeless people's activities," Appel said.

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